10 years ago today – a birthday party in Cuernavaca! It was time for the piñata, but the birthday girl (in pink in the front of the line) would need a lot of convincing before she would actually start walloping “Stephanie”.
It was 2007 Рand in Mexico, LazyTown was all the rage. The pi̱ata here is made to look like Stephanie, one of the main characters.
Nathanael (in the striped shirt near the front) awaits his turn, with his older sister Hannah (hair just visible – you can’t really make it out in this tiny version of the picture) waiting further back in line.
The girls in the mini-skirts were a part of the company that ran the party.
I didn’t have a chance to write after that. Nathanael and I were with the Connect Team in Villa Hermosa, a small village in the State of Veracruz (there’s more than one Villa Hermosa, so here it is on the map. Just zoom out to get an idea where it is. You can even see the main road on Google Street View.)
The people in Villa Hermosa were very gracious and we enjoyed our time of ministry in a couple of churches there, although perhaps our greatest ministry was just spending time with people.
The last team to come was from Leroy Community Chapel in Ohio. They did a lot of work with the construction of the main sanctuary for the church in the community of Jesús MarÃa. They finished the stage and also put up lighting. They also were involved in hearing aid/reading glasses evangelistic events, visitation, a craft class, and service at a rehab centre.
By the way, there are dozens of new pictures in our photo gallery, if you’d like to see what all this looked like!
I was especially excited about the event we had in Las Palmas. We’ve never done anything like this in Las Palmas, but the party hall was full of people getting their hearing checked, and getting reading glasses. We partnered with the municipality, who also brought in a chiropractor!
Apart from seeing people’s eyes light up when they could actually hear with a new hearing aid, it was exciting to see people hearing the gospel, and to see conversations going on around the room, often with Bibles open. A new family came to our Sunday service who had gotten to know us through this event.
When short term teams come to Ixtapaluca, one of the things they almost always mention in the feeling of community. That’s because of the Mexican culture, but also the service of fellow believers that they meet here. The team members usually stay in Mexican homes, and get to know people in real life.
So I’d like to close with a few photos from the goodbye party that we had for team #3 in the church in Jesús MarÃa. This team, and all the teams, made an impact on people’s lives. And the people here in Mexico made an impact on their lives. And God continues to work!
Team members have new Mexican familiesA birthday surprise for Michelle!Thankful for Google TranslateCross-cultural SelfieTwo churches from two countries pray together, under the newly installed lights!
She’ll be gone for a week, so I’m sure she would appreciate your prayers (and her parents would too!). 🙂
Do pray that this will be a good time of growth for all the youth who attend. Jim and Rod will be driving them all up with their luggage, a few hours there and a few hours back.
Promo poster for the camp – “A New Start”. Don’t worry, those prices are in pesos. For this week, just over CA$90 per person.
This week’s construction work beginning in earnest! 🔨 [image] (3 July 2017)
Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain! ~Psalm 119:36~ (3 July 2017)
Hearing checkups in Santa Barbara, Ixtapaluca. 👂Chequeos auditivos en Santa Bárbara, Ixtapaluca. 👂 [image] (4 July 2017)
Shari sharing the gospel with a couple of girls at today’s event ? Sheri compartiendo el evangelio con un par de chicas en el evento de hoy. [image] (4 July 2017)
Could that actually be Christ in that OT passage? Worth a read – “From the Shadows to the Savior” amzn.to/2sSteHP (5 July 2017)
As usual, we’re looking back over the past 90 days to see what’s been happening and which posts were most popular with visitors to Finding direction. Here they are, in chronological order. The three posts in bold were the most popular overall.
